developers

Google I/O is one of the best tech conferences of the year. If you're a developer, then this is your chance to get up-close and personal with some of the best and brightest minds in tech. This year the conference is moving away from San Francisco for the first time in its history.

Google is throwing open the computer vision system that powers Google Photos to third-party developers, helping them to filter out obscene images, spot faces and landmarks, and more. The new Cloud Vision API is what allows Google Photos to sift through all your pictures and collect all those with dogs in the frame, with well-known landmarks, or even particular facial emotions.

The bummer in this situation is the fact that the original team of developers will no longer be working on Project M. The good news is - they're not quitting the business altogether. A side-project, mostly for the fun of it, isn't going to be the end-point for the people behind the popular Super Smash Bros mod-makers, and the mods that've already been made will remain in operation for the foreseeable future.

First revealed almost a year ago at CES 2015, Intel's low-power Curie chip is finally becoming available on its first development board, the new Arduino 101. Up until now, Curie has mostly been used in things like wearables, along with the occasional odd product. But now that it's coming to the open-source Arduino platform, students and hobbyist makers can take advantage of its sensors and connectivity options.

A group of developers opens up the Google OnHub smart router's software to find that it runs Chrome OS. That means the device is a Chromebook - or a Chrome... Hub... as it were. While it doesn't mean you're going to be connecting the machine to a display and using it as a Chromebox any time soon, it does mean that there's far more potential for this OnHub device than Google is letting on initially. This all points to smart home control.

Today the folks at Google Creative Lab have harnessed some odd Android abilities to produce their very own Live Wallpaper. This wallpaper goes by the name "Meter" and provides an Android smartphone or tablet user with a series of geometric shapes that change color based on your device's signal strength, battery life, and notifications count. While all Live Wallpapers use more power than their non-live compatriots, this might be a good example of a time to throw caution to the wind.

The first Development Edition of the Microsoft HoloLens headset is set to be released in the first quarter of 2016. This headset's "development edition" will be titled as such because it'll be made for people wishing to create apps and games for the headset before the headset's first full consumer release. This is a similar release setup to Samsung's GearVR and Oculus' Rift developer edition releases, coming first with early editions to get developers interested, following up then with a real headset for consumers later.

This week the folks at Google have released Google App v5.3, a version made to NEARLY bring Google Now On Tap to Nexus devices. Of course you'll need to have a Developer Preview build ready to go, and you'll need to be on Developer Preview M 3, but once you are, there's a bit of treasure to (almost) be found. This update also brings on the full Marshmallow user interface aesthetic to the Google Now launcher.

This morning Samsung revealed their Gear S2 smartwatch with Tizen, the company's own software operating system. This afternoon they've released a public software developer kit (SDK) for creators of apps and software experiences. This means that in addition to the apps already connected with the device, developers everywhere will have the opportunity to create for Tizen on the smartwatch. In addition to this SDK, Samsung has opened their Gear S2 seller site for developers and partners to register their Gear S2 applications.

Today Google revealed Android 6.0 Marshmallow, and with it, they've released a new batch of downloads for Nexus devices. If you have a Nexus 6, Nexus 9, Nexus 5, or Nexus Player, you'll be able to load Android Marshmallow (also known here as Android M Preview 3) to your device immediately. Below you'll find instructions for those users that feel confident enough in their abilities to load a full OS to their smartphone. If you've never heard the term "ADB" before, we recommend you wait until Google sends the update to you directly.

This morning Android 6.0 Marshmallow (or just Android Marshmallow, if you prefer), was revealed by Google. With this big reveal game the final SDK for the system as well as Android Marshmallow Preview 3 (after M 2 and M 1) for several Nexus devices. For those of you that own the Nexus 5, Nexus 6, Nexus 9, or Nexus Player, you're in luck. Remember that these downloads are recommended for developers only and should be treated as such.

This week the folks at Studio Wildcard and Epic Games have teamed up with Alienware to encourage creative folks to go wild in dinosaur-land. In the world of ARK, that is, a video game where the ancient world and the modern world mix in an absolutely wild open world environment. To begin, users need to sign up for a free Unreal account and download the ARK Dev Kit - which is no small task due to its size.